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Gooey Italian and jack cheeses, crispy applewood-smoked bacon and juicy chicken breast pieces . . . sounds great (and unhealthy) right? Amazing as it is, this dish is lightened up enough that a serving of two cups is under 500 calories. Butter is removed from this dish and replaced with cream of mushroom soup and skim milk. Finished with reduced fat shredded cheeses and a single piece of crumbled bacon these ingredients add the perfect amount of creaminess and salt without going overboard. For the chicken, I utilized a rotisserie chicken and removed the skin/fat and shredded the breast meat for this dish. I then heated up the breast meat it the pan drippings from cooking the bacon. I’ve gotten in the habit of buying a rotisserie chicken on Sundays and storing the meat for use later in the week. Having the chicken done ahead of time makes this dish simple and quick to make. I also recommend cooking this dish in a pan that can be put in the oven and on the stove. This means a lot less dirty dishes to clean.

I promise that even though this dish is a lightened-up version of a favorite comfort food recipe – it tastes great! Enjoy!

2) Cook bacon in large nonstick skillet (that can go in the oven) over medium heat until crispy. Remove from pan and reserve drippings. Chop bacon and set aside.

3) Add shredded or cubed chicken breasts to pan and saute until heated through or cooked (3-6 minutes). Remove chicken and set aside.

4) Add oil to pan and heat over medium-high. Add flour and cook two minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk. Combine milk and soup and add mixture to pan. Continue stirring until mixture comes to a boil; cook two minutes or until thick. Remove from head and let stand four minutes so sauce can cool. Add Italian cheese blend, onion powder, garlic powder, dill and salt. Stir until cheese melts. Add the past and chicken and stir to combine.

I’ve been making this recipe with my family for years. It’s always been one of my favorite foods to make at home but fried in a wok and containing lots of sugar and cornstarch made it everything but healthy. So this go around I tried to lighten it up while still maintaining the integrity of the dish. I reduced the amounts of sugar, salt, oil and cornstarch to lower the calories and sodium in this meal. The end result was great. My husband and brother even commented it tasted better than the original recipe. The sauce is thick and tangy with just enough heat and the chicken stays moist and tender. I hope you enjoy.

-H

Ingredients – Sauce:

1/4 cup corn starch

1/8 cup water

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 inch of fresh ginger root, minced

1/4 cup white sugar

4 Tbs low sodium soy sauce

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/8 cup cooking sherry or white wine

1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth

2 cups green onions, chopped

4 dried peppers or 2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (alter to taste)

Ingredients – Meat:

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts

3 Tbs soy sauce

1 tsp white pepper

1 1/2 Tbs corn starch

1 1/2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Combine all meat ingredients except olive oil in a large bowl. Allow to marinate at room temperature while preparing other ingredients.

2. Combine all sauce ingredients except peppers and green onion in a large bowl. Mix well until cornstarch and sugar is dissolved.

3. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cooked until browned and cooked through (appx 15 min). Remove chicken and set aside.

4. Reduce heat to medium and add green onions and peppers to remaining oil in skillet. Cook until onions are tender and the peppers are fragrant (appx 2 min). Re-mix the sauce ingredients and add to the pan. Stir consistently until sauce thickens and starts to boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and add chicken. Cook until chicken is heated through (appx 2 min).

I was inspired this weekend to do a ‘Day of Cooking.’ One of those days where you don’t worry about time to prepare or difficulty – you just cook. On my day of cooking I discovered this recipe for butternut squash soup. To be completely honest, I’ve never made butternut squash soup before. It’s one of those dishes you hear from so many people about how tasty it is and simple to make. Well I finally decided to give it a go.

At the grocery store they did not have any butternut squash in stock so instead I ended up with a kabocha squash. The label read it was sweet and would be a good substitute for sweet potatoes/yams or butternut squash. Turned out to be a great substitute. The squash along with fresh ginger, shallots and a little salt and olive oil were all roasted in the oven until tender. Ingredients were then blended with chicken stock. The end result – amazing! Topped with a splash of sour cream and a pinch of chives this soup is to die for. It has a creamy texture with lots of flavor. We’ve been eating it as a leftover for the last couple of days and it’s still great. Highly recommend.

Found this recipe one day while randomly surfing websites for new recipes. I’ve always loved chicken cordon bleu but have never found a recipe I really liked. Most recipes either required a lot of work (stuffing chicken breasts) or were quite unhealthy. Well this recipe totally fit the bill! We loved it so much the first night we are literally making it again tonight – two days in a row! The leftovers held up as well – the panko topping stayed crunchy and the flavors were spot on. What makes this recipe so easy is all the traditional cordon bleu flavors are just piled on top of the chicken breasts and put in the oven. A cream cheese and swiss cheese mixture adds a delicious creaminess and the ham chunks just enough salt. We served it with a side a polenta as to not overshadow how awesome this chicken is. This recipe is so tasty, I promise you will enjoy!

1 1/4 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts (Should have four breasts – we cut two large ones in half)

Fresh ground pepper and kosher salt to taste

1/3 cup shredded swiss cheese plus a sprinkle more for topping

2 Tbs reduced-fat cream cheese

1/4 c panko crumbs

1 Tbs Italian breadcrumbs

1 tsp fresh chopped thyme

4 tsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1/4 c chopped ham

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

2) Heat 2 tsp oil in a large, ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper and add to skillet. Cook chicken until browned on both sides – approximately 2 minutes per side.

3) While chicken is cooking, in a small bowl combine: cream cheese and swiss cheese. In a second small bowl combine: pank0, bread crumbs, thyme and remaining oil.

4) Move chicken breasts to center of pan so all pieces are touching. Top with cheese mixture and then ham. Sprinkle a small amount of additional swiss cheese on top of ham. Finish off with bread crumb mixture. Bake in oven 10-15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.